


Haven

by femme4jack



Series: The Tales of Recline the Berthformer [5]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: BDSM, Canonical Character Death, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-20
Updated: 2012-04-20
Packaged: 2017-11-04 00:47:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/387798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/femme4jack/pseuds/femme4jack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"Good Prime," First Aid reached over and squeezed Rodimus's hand. "Remember, that walking, talking bed has kept more mechs relatively sane and functioning since war broke out than you'd ever imagine.  But I'm not just sending you to him for your benefit.  He needs you, too."</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Haven

**Author's Note:**

> **Content:** References to canon character deaths (TFTM related), possible misuse of high grade (potentially laced with other substances), fade to black BDSM.
> 
> More [Recline the Berthformer](http://femme4jack.livejournal.com/141144.html). The second and third sections of this were written for the tf_speedwriting prompt - _inebriated. Let's have some tipsy fumbling_. This chapter was one of those situations where the characters took a prompt in a completely different direction than I had planned. It turns out Recline is a weepy drunk. Sorry if this installment ends a bit abruptly. Was trying to finish within the time limit.

"You need to go see Recline," the CMO said in a tone Rodimus had quickly learned not to argue with. A disappointed First Aid was a far worse prospect than an infuriated Ratchet had ever been. 

But something about this particular "suggestion" made the new Prime bristle.

"I don't need to go see a walking, talking bed about my recharge issues," he snapped, more irritably than he'd intended to. But it wasn't because of those recharge issues. Really. It wasn't.

And then it came: the disappointed, wounded look. Before First Aid could even begin, Rodimus was capitulating. "All right, all right, I'll go see him. First thing, as soon as the shift is over... ok I mean right now, I'll go see him right and now would you stop looking at me like that!"

"Good Prime," First Aid reached over and squeezed Rodimus's hand. "Remember, that walking, talking bed has kept more mechs relatively sane and functioning since war broke out than you'd imagine. But I'm not just sending you to him for your benefit. He needs you, too."

"What could he possibly need me for? He's never even met me."

"You have the wisdom of the Primes. I'm sure you'll figure it out," First Aid said sweetly as he got back to his pedes from the berth he'd been sitting next to Rodimus on for their weekly "chat". "Now get out of here. I have work to do. And you don't. Not until you've seen our recharge specialist." 

"You know, I think I liked you better when you weren't so bossy," Rodimus mumbled as he left, pinging Metroplex for Recline's location.

* * *

Recline was an odd looking mech by any standard, Rodimus mused. His armor wasn't truly armor at all, and the metalogel that he used to adjust his shape gave him a distinctly smooth, non-angular appearance. Rodimus had been sparked in a generation that had not been exposed to many of the frametypes unsuited to war. They had all either extinguished, fled, or reformatted. Recline was a throwback to another era.

Odd looking did not mean he wasn't hot, though. And the more highgrade Rodimus consumed, the more he noticed those smooth lines and the sensuous way the berthformer moved.

"So... um... have you always been a bed?" Rodimus mentally kicked himself as the words somehow fumbled past his vocalizer. Recline was, oddly enough, lounging on his own berth, enjoying his own cube of high grade. Heh, a berth on a berth. The berth on the berth grinned and gave a slightly hysterical laugh. 

"Since I was a newspark," Recline said cheerily, "and no, I didn't start off as a cradle. Ambassador Witwicky asked me that when he was a kid. Want another cube?"

Hell yeah, Rodimus thought, holding his out for a refill. The first two had gone down so smooth. What was it the bed said he'd enriched it with again? Earth "medicinal" plant and mineral essences infused in some sort of plant-based alcohol that Rodimus wasn't at all certain his filters were equipped to handle, but First Aid had sent him here, so First Aid could deal with the mess.

"Why are you getting me overcharged again?" Rodimus suddenly asked as seriously as he could with the way his circuits were buzzing and tingling, making him feel like he could just say anything at all. "Is this what you do with all your... your..."

"Snuggle buddies?" Recline supplied helpfully, giggling, his words becoming slightly slurred with static as he threw back another cube. Was that his fourth? "No, just the ones who need it. And you, my Prime, need to get aft-shhhh-slapping drunk. And then overload hard, ssss-several times. And then shhh-sleeep. On me. Until I shhhh-say you are done."

"Whoa, Bed, easy now, you are really getting overcharged," Rodimus suddenly felt a bit more sober, even if his optics were focusing at different speeds and there were two sentient beds lounging on the berth instead of one. Mmm, a Recline sandwich.

"I am?" Recline said, sounding innocently confused. "I'm shhh-such a lightweight."

"Well hold off there, I don't think you should have any more of that," Rodimus said, finishing off his own cube and moving from his chair to the berth where Recline was close to capsizing. He settled himself next the overcharged mech, and threw an arm around the listing bed to hold him upright. Recline's field immediately meshed with his own in a blatantly inviting way.

"You want to tell me why you are getting overcharged?" Rodimus asked, kneading Recline's shoulder, enjoying a bit too much how good the give to the berthformer's meshy plating felt under his hand, not to mention the thrumming field. 

"You think there's a reason?" Recline said, his voice trembling a little.

"Wisdom of the Primes and all that slag," Rodimus said, pointing his free hand at his chest.

"Just didn't want you to have to get overcharged alone," Recline lied, his field suddenly awash with nervousness as he looked anywhere but at his Prime.

"Try again," Rodimus said, sobering up even more as concern began to replace the tingles running through his neural net.

Recline looked suddenly ready to flee, tensing and trying to rein in his field. "I'm fragging this all up. This isn't the way it is supposed to be," he admitted, grief spilling out into his field so suddenly that it was like a damn bursting. 

"Hey now, there isn't any _supposed to_ ," Rodimus said, gathering the mech into his arms, suddenly glad he could hold so much high grade. "Tell me what's going on."

"I'm supposed to be at peace, to be a haven of harmony for anyone who needs me." Recline buried his face against Rodimus's chest. "I'm supposed to be taking care of you."

Rodimus began stroking the berthformer's back, quickly accessing a few of Optimus's memories of time spent with Recline for guidance. Like most Matrix memories, at least those that could be accessed without deeper meditation, these were more emotion-filled glimpses than detailed data files. The impressions that fed from the Matrix into his spark were just as Recline described - a haven, peace, the feeling of being completely cared for without any pretenses. There was also an immense affection and protectiveness of something precious and almost completely lost from their kind. 

Most of the more recent arrivals on Earth, including Rodimus, had privately questioned the presence of the berthformer and why a relatively "useless and defenseless" mech was so easily accepted among the ranks of the Ark-based crew. The impressions helped Rodimus understand, but gave no guidance as to what to do now.

"You don't have to be peaceful for me, Recline," Rodimus murmured to the obviously hurting mech. 

"Yes, I do!" Recline wailed. "You don't understand. Peace, harmony, a haven is _what I am_. I've _always_ been able to perform my function. Most of my processing power goes to remaining balanced and at peace so I can be that for those I recharge. It's why berthformers can't support additional alt forms, weapons, or even extra shielding. Everything we are is dedicated to being a haven."

"But Recline," Rodimus chided, holding the mech as he began to shake. "You're a mech. You have a spark. You hurt sometimes. No one is balanced and peaceful all the time. You aren't the only one who is off kilter right now. We _all_ are."

"I'm supposed to help put you all back together," the severely overcharged berthformer cried. "That's my function, and I just can't. I can't any more. I lost too many... too many..."

"Too many of the people you cared for," Rodimus said quietly, holding the mech even tighter.

"Too many whose fears and fluxes I knew, whose hopes I grew, whose secret desires I guarded and made true," Recline answered, his words switching to a more archaic form of Cybertronian, spoken almost like a creed. 

"Recline," Rodimus murmured, "you have to give yourself time to grieve. You don't owe me or anyone else anything right now. Give yourself some time, mech. That's an order from your Prime."

"This army has fueled me and kept me safe for so many vorns, and the time when mechs need me the most, because they are hurting the most, I can't be their berth and harbor," Recline whispered. "Do you realize how much I'm needed right now? How poorly everyone is recharging? I can hear Bluestreak fluxing during his rest shifts. Jazz is barely a shadow of himself. The Aerialbots, Protectobots and Dinobots all lost their creators and mentors and they are hardly even mechlings yet."

"They will survive this, Recline. They just need a chance to grieve, just like you do," Rodimus murmured, but Recline went on as if he hadn't heard.

"And our Prime is plagued with doubt, can't recharge, and fears journeying into the Matrix because he believes it will reject him, yet he hopes that is exactly what will happen. You need me to help you find your balance, my Prime, and it is what I'm meant to do, but I can't."

"And you thought getting extremely overcharged would help you?" Rodimus asked gently, almost completely sober now.

Recline nodded into his chest. "I thought it couldn't hurt."

Rodimus shifted, pushing Recline slightly away so the berthformer had to meet his optics.

"How 'bout we try something different," Rodimus suggested, putting a hand beneath Recline's chin when he tried to look away. "Why don't you pretend I'm the berthformer tonight, and tell me about all those fears and fluxes and hopes and secret desires business."

Recline stared at him, his vocalizer resetting itself several times. He reached for the highgrade carafe, but Rodimus captured his wrist and brought it back. "Tell me, Recline," he said, putting the authority of an order from the Prime in his tone.

And so Recline did, and Rodimus felt his core heating in all the right ways as he realized, yet again, just how fragging brilliant First Aid truly was.

* * *

Rodimus trilled in contentment from where he was over arm tied, flat on his front, his face mashed into the mesh-covered metalogel with several of Recline's cables strapping him tightly to the charging platform for good measure. He gave a little hiss as the cables that had so recently delivered such sweet pain began soothing away the scorch marks, moaning again as his wrists and pedes were released just enough to allow energon flow to return. 

"That was amazing," he murmured, kissing the mesh pressed against his face. The ozone scent of his overload was sharp on his sensors, and Recline's charge was still buzzing beneath him. Recline squeezed him before fully releasing him from the bonds. He used his cables to assist his Prime in rolling over, tapping Rodimus's primary interface port with another cable, which obediently spiraled open for him.

"Now touch yourself. Bring yourself to another overload. And I want to feel you moving. A lot," Recline ordered, his field washing through his Prime's with gratitude and contentment. They both would recharge well that cycle.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for the wonderful kudos and comments! You all have been making my week by enjoying and loving Recline since he took up residence in my head. It feels so good to be enjoying writing again after a dry spell and busy couple of months. This is the final speedwriting prompt for this week, but I don't think I'm done with Recline yet, so feel free to give me ideas!


End file.
